Transmisión materno-infantil de Trypanosoma cruzi: Búsqueda de marcadores inmunológicos en mujeres embarazadas con infección crónica que permitan predecir el riesgo de infección congénita
Browsing Transmisión materno-infantil de Trypanosoma cruzi: Búsqueda de marcadores inmunológicos en mujeres embarazadas con infección crónica que permitan predecir el riesgo de infección congénita by Subject "trypanocidal compounds"
Trypanosoma cruzi is the etiological agent of Chagas disease. It affects eight million people
worldwide and can be spread by several routes, such as vectorborne transmission in endemic
areas and congenitally, and is also important in non-endemic regions such as the United States and
Europe due to migration from Latin America. Cyclophilins (CyPs) are proteins with enzymatic
peptidyl-prolyl isomerase activity (PPIase), essential for protein folding in vivo. Cyclosporin A
(CsA) has a high binding affinity for CyPs and inhibits their PPIase activity. CsA has proved
to be a parasiticidal drug on some protozoa, including T. cruzi. In this review, we describe the
T. cruzi cyclophilin gene family, that comprises 15 paralogues. Among the proteins isolated by
CsA-affinity chromatography, we found orthologues of mammalian CyPs. TcCyP19, as the human
CyPA, is secreted to the extracellular environment by all parasite stages and could be part of a complex
interplay involving the parasite and the host cell. TcCyP22, an orthologue of mitochondrial CyPD,
is involved in the regulation of parasite cell death. Our findings on T. cruzi cyclophilins will allow
further characterization of these processes, leading to new insights into the biology, the evolution of
metabolic pathways, and novel targets for anti-T. cruzi contro